NIH Web Authors Group (WAG)

Topic: Convenience, credibility... content – Designing websites that engage consumers and increase health literacy
Date/Time: Tuesday, October 27, 2009; 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Location: Building 31, 6th floor, ‘C’ Wing, Conference Room # 6, Main Campus, Bethesda, MD
Speaker: Kath Straub, Usability.org
Abstract: NIH Web Authors Group - October 2009

It’s not just the web that is evolving - consumers are evolving. Consumers know more, do more, and expect more from the web. We extend the findings from our online health information seeking survey (Crawford & Straub, 2007) to demonstrate that consumers today engage with web content differently. Previous research (Fogg, 2003) indicated that health professionals and consumers used very different cues to determine the credibility of websites. Our findings demonstrate that today’s health information seekers are increasingly more informed consumers. As such, they engage differently on the web. Their approach to identifying credible content has changed. Consumers consistently apply a given — new strategy when determining the believability and applicability of information. In addition, we find that they rely increasingly on (cross referenced) content accuracy, the reputation of sources and the participation of health care professionals in selecting health information sites to trust. We explore how the consumer information ecosystem is changing, the expanding the expanding role of the web as a primary resource, and the implications of these shifts on the definition (and measure) of effective web content. Finally, we discuss emerging methods to identify the trips and triggers for the given-new strategy within the context of designing sites to engage consumers, increase health literacy and positively influence health behaviors.